History of Barnard Levit

Professor Barnard commenced his first practice in Hove, Sussex in 1979 and London practice in 1989. He was joined by Alex Levit in 1999. The senior partner in the Hove practice is now Jerome Chin Aleong.

Innovation

The practice prides itself in being at the leading edge of clinical and diagnostic technology which, together with an ongoing desire of the clinical staff to not only maintain but continually aspire to more knowledge, enables us to aim to provide the highest possible levels of optometric care.

In August 1993 the Prof Barnard was the first optometrist in the world to install an Intuitive Colorimeter from Cerium Visual Technologies for the investigation of visual stress syndrome in dyslexics in a primary care practice.

In 2001 the practice was one of the first practices in the world to install the Optos Panoramic Optomap retinal imaging system to replace conventional retinal photography.

In 2005 Barnard Levit Optometrists was the first optometry practice in Europe to install an optical coherence tomographer, a Zeiss Stratus OCT which we subsequently upgraded to a Zeiss Cirrus HD-OCT in 2008.

In 2008 the practice was the first in the UK to instal a Zeiss Polatest system designed for MKH full binocular refractions

In 2016 the practice was the first optometry practice to install the Diopsys ERG & VEP testing suite

Remembering Adam Zamenhof

When Professor Barnard started the practice in 1989 he named the building Zamenhof House in memory of Dr Adam Zamenhof (1888-1940). An eminent and respected eye surgeon, Adam Zamenhof was also head of the Starozakonnych Orthodox Jewish Hospital on Czyste Street in Warsaw, Poland. He was widely published and invented an instrument to assess visual fields. He was the son of Ludowig Zamenhof, the inventor of Esperanto who was an ophthalmologist as well. Adam Zamenhof was arrested by the Nazis in 1939, sent to the internment camp in Palmirach and was shot by the Nazis on 29th January 1940 aged 52 years. A translation of one of Dr Adam Zamenhof’s published papers can be seen here.